rObfOs Jan/Feb braille alphabet offerings

Herewith my dotty letter offerings for Jan/Feb 2012:

- Braille Alphabet -

As predicted in my first post about my braille alphabet,

I am finding it difficult to pace myself. 

My format is very simple and

I just can't limit myself to cutting out one piece of metal.  

For continuity's sake, I want to do them all at once.

Since the whole concept of the alphabet is tactile, it is hard

to make them look exciting in photographic form

(I have been having fun running my fingers over them, but oh, the fingerprints!) 

 I shall have to spend my time thinking of some very clever way of 

displaying them as a whole to make them more appealing.

Curving the metal plates around something cylindrical is

going around in my mind at the moment

and of course making sure the sharp edges are contained so that

nobody ends up with cut fingers.

Also thinking about adding to the sensory side of things 

with the noise the plates might make if they were to jingle together.

E, F, G, H - Jo

Surprise!  I'm on track this year and have completed February's letters.  Mind you, Photoshop is one of my favourite pastimes and I can spend hours manipulaing images to my satisfaction.

Hope these pass muster...

Of course they are the 'dotty' ones and probably will lend themselves to a 'waterfall' book in the final arrangement.

The paper dot letters continue and I'm really enjoying playing with the circle and triangle shapes to see how I can piece the letters together.

I didn't realize until after I had already decided my palette that my 'e' would be yellow. Remind you of any 80s video game characters??

I'm still so impressed with all of the creative ideas I've been seeing here. Wonderful jobs fellow ALAWers!!

Here are my February letters, I've now run out of the beautiful handmade paper with the confetti type spots going through it. I got it a couple of years ago so I'm hoping my paper supply shop will still have it.

Nearly up to date! Have been a little slow as I had not completed last years letters into a book form That's now done and was posted in ALAW 2011 yeasterday. Valerie

In December I decided after two years that I would not continue, however the dots and circles appealed so here I am for another year! I found some of my hand marbled paper that has a multitude of bubble type images that would be a nice background, went looking for an alphabet into which I could incorporate dots and circles. I have chosen a 15th century Italian style chunky Roman letter which suits my 'rising bubbles' very nicely.

Judith's first few letters

Here are my next letters.

I based them on the Neuland hand but with more movement and then they came alive :)

Judith

Valerie's Introduction

I am Valerie Keevers born in Kent, England…. yonks ago. My Grandfather introduced me to Heraldry and Calligraphy as a small child, taking me into old churches and museums, also telling me the tales of knights of old and their adventures. War broke out and all these adventures stopped, except for the books I could read about Dragons, Unicorns and The Crusaders etc. My heritage is Scottish and Welsh, so I also have a great love of the Tartans and the Gaelic arts which came to the fore many years later when I became a calligrapher.

My family moved to Australia where I finished my schooling and four years at East Sydney Tafe, becoming a two year bonded teacher of Fashion, which had been my passion since I could first thread a needle. Teaching in Tamworth, I met a carpenter Brian whom I married the following year. We travelled back to England on honeymoon so that I could introduce Brian to my extended family and we stayed and obtained work experience for the next two years, Brian in the building industry and myself in fashion, becoming the manager of an ‘off the peg clothing’ manufacturer Armon Gowns.

Back in Australia we settled in Sydney, bought a house and had three children so the next years passed in a blur of rearing children and running a part time private business from home. The next major leap was to take a Tafe Computing Course, becoming a part time I.T. teacher for the next 22 years. It was during these early I.T. years that I closed my dressmaking business and looking for something to fill that gap I took a calligraphy course with Fran McKirdy and became hooked! Calligraphy filled the need in me for colour, art, design and re-opened the door to my love of the written word. From here I did the Calligraphy Certificate at St. George Tafe with Olivia Roberts, The Certificate Course with Margaret Layson at Chatswood Evening College, finishing with The Diploma Course in Western Calligraphy and became an accredited Vetab Teacher of Calligraphy.

I have taught Calligraphy over the years for the Eastern Suburbs Evening College and the Sutherland and St. George Community College as well as The Australia Calligraphers and Calligraphy Southscribes. Southscribes came into being 20 years ago to serve the potential calligraphers south of the Harbour as travel to the northside meant a lot of extra time added to a workshop at Primrose Park.
I am still a serving committee member and tutor of Southscribes which has given me a lot of pleasure and has enabled the meeting of many interstate and intra-state calligraphers who all help to widen the knowledge and enjoyment of calligraphy and the related arts.

I was very wary when I started with ‘A Letter A Week’ back in 2010, however found it fascinating to see via the Internet what creative designs were being posted and also found renewed enthusiasm for creating individual letters. Continued into 2011 and now have just committed myself for 2012. A big thank you to Fiona Dempster for her dedication To ALAW as it is bringing the love of lettering to a very wide community.

Valerie Keevers - finished book for alaw 2011  "black and white and a touch of..."

The Next Four

And here they are.

I have painted over each one with a starch paste

This time the paste consists of

Soy  milk powder and plain white spelt flour

Next will be some painting

I am having to be a bit ahead of schedule

as I will be away for half of April and May

Plus prep time of course.

Introduction - Deb

Hello, my name is Deb. I only discovered ALaW recently and was so inspired by all the brilliant and fascinating work. I really enjoyed looking back over the last two years.
I live in South Australia and have been quilting and stitching for thirty years. I like to mix machine and hand work.
I haven't done a lot of work with the alphabet apart from appliqueing white towels with new baby's names for all my daughters friends. These have been extremely popular. I think after making the major decision of naming your baby, to see the name in print (in any form) is very exciting.
I don't even know a lot about alphabets so I am looking forward to doing some research. I know all you calligraphers would have a vast knowledge! 
For my first alphabet I have made little linen and lawn sachets, turned them inside out, stitched around the edge and then appliqued a spotty letter on the front. I am then stitching a simple circle using hand dyed (by a friend) crochet cotton. The alphabet fabric is a multi-coloured piece of batik, so all the letters will be a different colour. 
Not quite sure how I am going to put these together yet but I have a few ideas.
The font I am using is Bookman Old Style from Microsoft Word.